Making a (first century AD) tunic

[Crispvs]

This one seems like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how many people get the most basic item of kit there is wrong. This piece, then, is to help you to get it right, or at least a little closer to getting it right.



The Tunic (Latin: tunica)

FABRIC

First of all, the material: WOOL. This should be woven not knitted (knitting as we know it did not exist in ancient times). Many different weaves are known from archaeological finds, so any weave you are likely to come accross should be fairly safe. The material should be 100% wool and not a blend of modern fibres (as many fabric shops will try to sell you, claiming modern blends to be "better"). Old blankets can also be useful as a source of suitable fabric. It is also possible that some soldiers may have worn linen tunics in hot climates. The same rules apply.

COLOUR

This is a very contentious topic, but first things first. The fabric you choose should be plain in colour, the only possible exception being a pair of narrow vertical lines known as 'clavi' which (when present) should each be about a third of the way accross the final width of the tunic. DO NOT consider any other type of decoration. Clavi are the ONLY decoration permissible on a tunic and as these were normally woven into the material, you are better off avoiding decoration altogether and going for a single colour.
As to the overall colour, this is the issue which gets people fighting like tomcats. Many people have entrenched and inflexible views on the 'correct' colour for a tunic. The fact is however that most of the surviving literary references to the colour of military clothing refer to cloak colour rather than tunic colour and representations of tunics in frescos show a variety of colours and shades. Yes, red and white are both there, but so is salmon pink, green and pale blue. Significantly the ancient authors who tell us most about the equipment of the individual soldier do not even bother to mention tunic colour, despite Polybius actually telling us the colour of the feathers on soldiers' helmets. Tunic colour's possible lack of importance is further demonstrated by a mention by the biographer Suetonius of a punishment laid down by Augustus for soldiers who had committed minor offences: to be made to stand outside the headquarters building without their belts, which would deprive them of any sign of a military identity. Known signs of military identity were the military belt and the tunic which had been hitched up above the knees. If the soldiers wore a 'military' colour tunic they would still have been left with a symbol of their military identity. It follows then that the colour of the tunic was not seen as particularly significant. Therefore, if you want to make your tunic red or white (or undyed for that matter) either is fine and you will not get into trouble with anyone, but it would probably be wrong to think of either, or any other colour as being specifically military and so you could choose almost any colour you liked.
The only colours you should really avoid are purple and black. Both were extemely expensive (well out of the price range of a soldier) and in the case of black, as far as I know there was only a single dyestuff which could be used produce black dye and that was found well inside the enemy Persian empire. The wool of black sheep would produce something akin to black but it would be a very brown or grey version of black, rather than black as we understand it today.

DESIGN

At last we come to the garment itself. The tunic should not be thought of as a miniskirt or dress. In fact it is a large and very roomy garment which may take some getting used to at first.
For dimensions, a very rough guide to use is that if you stand up with both arms stretched out in a cruciform stance, the tunic (when unbelted) should reach from elbow to elbow as an absolute minimum (wrist to wrist would be just as accurate) and should hang to mid calf or just above the ankle.
The shape is very simple. There is no tailoring involved and the shape should be a simple rectangle or square. There should be no need for sleeves (indeed, the Romans themselves felt that sleeves were a little effeminate). For the arm and neck holes, simply leave around a third or slightly less at the middle of the top unsewn and leave the top third of each side unsewn. You may need to do a little hemming. The Romans seem to have produced the material in the correct size for tunics, meaning that there would not be frayed edges (except perhaps on clothing made from the cut up remains of old garments). We do not usually have this luxury and have to cut our material from larger pieces, meaning that frayed edges are more likely.

WEARING YOUR TUNIC

Having put the tunic on, get a waist tie of some sort and tie it reasonably tightly around your waist. This will pull the tunic in and effectively create sleeves. Then pull the material up through the waist tie until the bottom edge of the tunic hangs several inches above your knees. You will probably feel that the tunic is far too baggy and cumbersome at this stage. Don't worry - the Romans liked their clothing to be very roomy and you will soon get used to it. For a waist tie, you could use a leather thong, a thick piece of string or twine, a length of woven braid, a plain leather belt, or even a strip of material cut from fabric.
Do not use your military belt to hitch up your tunic. Put the balteus militare on once you have already finished getting the tunic right. Despite the apparently huge dimensions of your tunic, you should not have too much trouble putting your armour on over it. If you do, it probably means your armour is too small.

UNDERTUNIC

An undertunic is a good idea which helps keep you warm when it is cold and helps keep you cool when it is hot. An undertunic should be made of linen and should be made in the same way as the tunic, only a little smaller. It will not need a waist tie as it will be taken in anyway when you tie a waist tie around the tunic itself. The linen will almost certainly need hemming (linen frays very easily) and it is best to stick to undyed linen in its natural off-white to light biege clour.

I hope people will find this useful.

Crispvs

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Salve Crispvs,

good article. It helped me a lot. But I have still some question left you can possibly answer, even it isn't directly to the tunic. I've heard that instead of a belt a long waistband (a fascia ventralis) was used. May be you can give me some clue about its measurements and the way it was put on.
Another point I think about is, whether the Romans had some sort of protective for the fabric to prevent it of soaking too much moisture in bad weather, especially then using a linen tunic.

Vale

[Tarbicus]

WEARING YOUR TUNIC

Having put the tunic on, get a waist tie of some sort and tie it reasonably tightly around your waist. This will pull the tunic in and effectively create sleeves. Then pull the material up through the waist tie until the bottom edge of the tunic hangs several inches above your knees.

There's actually another possible way that I've been playing around with. Try folding the bottom up, so the hem tucks under and above the belt.

Bad quality photo, I'm afraid, but gives the idea. The corners are held in place at the shoulders by a string around the neck (experimenting), but they can be tucked back down under the belt.

[Crispvs]

Tiberivs Clodivs Corvinvs,

I am inclined to think that the thunic would have been hitched up over a waist tie before a waist sash (fascia ventralis) was put on. Certainly this is what I do. I am not convinced that the sash would be as effective for holding the position of the tunic as a waist tie. Also, in sculptures which seem to show the sash, it appears that much of the material which has been gathered up has been covered by the sash, suggesting (to me at least) that the tunic has been first hitched up and then the sash put on.

As to the dimensions of the sash, we can only guess, but a reasonable guess seems to be eight to ten feet long and about one foot wide. Mine is about this size. When I put it on, the width of the material contracts to about six inches, thanks to the the way the I find trhe material folds as I wind it around my waist.

Regarding waterproofing, it is likely that the wool the Romans used retained more of the natural lanolin even after dying than wool which has been dyed with modern processes. This natural lanolin would make a woollen tunic moderately water resistant, as it would a cloak. I am not sure what you would do to waterproof a linen tunic, but it would not be beyond the established methods of the ancient world to soak it in oil or fat. However, as I think the majority of linen tunics were probably worn underneath woollen outer clothing, the waterproofing of linen clothing might not have been an issue.


Tarbicus,

That would never have occurred to me but it certainly looks the part and could well be a real possibility. Well done.

Crispvs

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Thanks Crispvs,

but one last question. You mentioned:

crispvs wrote: majority of linen tunics were probably worn underneath woollen outer clothing

But one might think that legionaries serving in the Mediterranean were highly suspectible of dangerous overheating especially when in full armour. So I ever thought, that linen tunics were the norm in hotter regions. But I haven't tried and it's just a guess.

Vale

[Crispvs]

True, and you are not alone in that opinion, which could well be true. However, that said, woollen clothing has always been in widespread use in the Mediterranean and I have always been led to believe that it forms the usual material for most traditional North African clothing. Sometimes it is not so much a case of what you wear as how you wear it. Woollen cloth can insulate you from the heat as well as the cold.

Crispvs

[Marcus Mummius]

There's actually another possible way that I've been playing around with. Try folding the bottom up, so the hem tucks under and above the belt.

Looks very good. I'm not sure if I understand the technique you use... The bottom edges of the tunic are pulled up and put under the belt at the hips? Do you have enough material left at the sides to keep matters decent?

[Marcus Hortensius Castus]

True, and you are not alone in that opinion, which could well be true. However, that said, woollen clothing has always been in widespread use in the Mediterranean and I have always been led to believe that it forms the usual material for most traditional North African clothing. Sometimes it is not so much a case of what you wear as how you wear it. Woollen cloth can insulate you from the heat as well as the cold.

Crispvs

Also don't forget wool has cooling qualities when damp, so the sweat of the soldiers would have dampened the tunics and as it evaporated the legionaries would have been cooled. When I was younger I had a WW2 Britihs canteen covered in wool, and inquired as to why it was covered in wool; I tried it out and sure enough, on a warm or hot day, if I dampened the wool cover the water inside was pleasantly cool.

[Tarbicus]

Looks very good. I'm not sure if I understand the technique you use... The bottom edges of the tunic are pulled up and put under the belt at the hips?

Yup, that's all it is with a bit of tucking still.

Do you have enough material left at the sides to keep matters decent?

Absolutely. A few seconds of adjusting the material forwards and backwards at the sides and the material overlaps front to back (pull the rear forwards at the sides, and the front to the rear over that). If you lift your leg the buttocks aren't seen and are still hidden by the tunic with a kind of curtain effect, and it's actually surprisingly modest. The other benefits are: Less blousing at the waist and interference with the weapons and belt compared to the normal 'pull-up'; a double layer of material below the waist; an incredibly great degree of freedom of movement. With the apron straps to keep the front of the tunic from lifting up and showing the family jewels, your modesty is safe and sound (I'm pretty convinced the apron straps were for that purpose, coinciding with the shorter tunic).

But one might think that legionaries serving in the Mediterranean there highly suspectible of dangerous overheating especially when in full armour.

If you use thick wool fabric for a tunic then possibly. All of my tunics are made of lighter weight wool which breathes very nicely. Wool's a wonderful fabric.

Added: The tunic won't gradually slip down to give it that HBO Rome 'below the knee' look.

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Considered that you said wool seems to be far better than I had thougt. Maybe I'd been somewhat diverted by the "modern" view of woolen clothing as now being almost entirely designed to keep you warm, while actually lighter wool products have only been replaced by cotton or other fabrics in our time.

the sweat of the soldiers would have dampened the tunics and as it evaporated the legionaries would have been cooled

I think this effect shouldn't be over-estimated, for I believe it heavily depends on how closely the fabric fits to the skin of the wearer (as is in case of the canteen) but interesting though.

BTW, any ideas as to why cotton didn't find its way into Europe before the Arab invasion. I wonder as I've read that the Egyptians used it long before.

[Tarbicus]

Maybe I'd been somewhat diverted by the "modern" view of woolen clothing as now being almost entirely designed to keep you warm, while actually lighter wool products have only been replaced by cotton or other fabrics in our time.

A good and decent modern suit made of wool will keep you warmer in winter, and still be wearable in the summer. There's no reason to suppose Roman woolen fabric was any less so given the centuries of experience, with garments made in almost every home. IIRC, fragments have been found that outclass the finest modern gabardines (it's mentioned here on RAT somewhere).

[richsc]

BTW, any ideas as to why cotton didn't find its way into Europe before the Arab invasion. I wonder as I've read that the Egyptians used it long before

Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. Cotton seeds are hard to separate, and though there are many types of cotton, the short fibers are also hard to spin into thread. Cotton was a luxury item until the Industrial Revolution.

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

richsc wrote:

BTW, any ideas as to why cotton didn't find its way into Europe before the Arab invasion. I wonder as I've read that the Egyptians used it long before

Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. Cotton seeds are hard to separate, and though there are many types of cotton, the short fibers are also hard to spin into thread. Cotton was a luxury item until the Industrial Revolution.

Ah, economic/technological reason. Thank you.

[Graham Sumner]

Having spent many years researching this topic there is far more evidence on tunic colour than Paul 'Crispus' implies in his post. The problem in trying to summarise the evidence available for a RAT post is that you can become selective only telling part of the story which in turn can sometimes unintentionally mislead others.

While I agree with most of what Paul has written there are some of his statements which I feel fall into the latter category. Although not basically incorrect it is what is left out that is important. While trying not to be selective myself I have therefore added to what he has written and hopefully given a broader picture.

The fact is however that most of the surviving literary references to the colour of military clothing refer to cloak colour rather than tunic colour

Most of these references are to generals cloaks. As these would be large pieces of fabric, (probably much larger than those used by re-enactors )the fact that they were coloured usually purple immediately identified the status of the individual to the reader.

representations of tunics in frescos show a variety of colours and shades. Yes, red and white are both there, but so is salmon pink, green and pale blue.

This is quite true. However the evidence for green and blue tunics is almost negligible compared with the evidence for red and white tunics which appear consistently throughout the Roman period. When green and blue tunic colours do occur they can be associated with either specific functions such as hunting or units like the naval forces. Salmon pink is presented here as a different colour but any red shade from salmon pink through orange, russet brown to a dark red can be achieved by using madder dye. It would depend on how long the wool had been dyed which in turn would effect the cost. A bright scarlet colour dyed from the kermes would be very expensive and that is why we see it used for officer's cloaks.

Significantly the ancient authors who tell us most about the equipment of the individual soldier do not even bother to mention tunic colour

Lists of clothing and equipment for soldiers such as those in the Historia Augusta do mention a military tunic colour.

Tunic colour's possible lack of importance is further demonstrated by a mention by the biographer Suetonius of a punishment laid down by Augustus for soldiers who had committed minor offences: to be made to stand outside the headquarters building without their belts, which would deprive them of any sign of a military identity.

Accounts of the Christian military martyrs also describe the same punishment by stripping off both equipment and clothing and they do mention the military colour.

Known signs of military identity were the military belt and the tunic which had been hitched up above the knees. If the soldiers wore a 'military' colour tunic they would still have been left with a symbol of their military identity.

Civilians too can be seen in ancient art wearing tunics hitched up above the waist and red civilian clothing is not unknown either. Therefore I think the military status is implied here by them wearing both belts and good quality clothing whatever the colour.

Some other issues were raised.

I've heard that instead of a belt a long waistband (a fascia ventralis) was used. May be you can give me some clue about its measurements and the way it was put on.

This is far from certain and is based largely on interpretations of some of the sculptures of soldiers tombstones such as the broken stele from Cassaco in Northern Italy. However a recently discovered tablet from Vindolanda refers to the repair of a ventralem so it is possible this item was a part of the military kit. Pliny Nat Hist book VIII 193 mentions a ventralis which he describes as a money belt. As the rectangular object seen on soldiers tombstones possibly tucked into a waistband has often been identified as a purse this would seem to reinforce the idea that waistbands were worn. As to size and method of putting them on we can only guess and use analogies with more recent examples such as those used by the French Foreign Legion. I believe one re-enactor has suggested the scarf doubled up as the waistband when it was not used under armour. However the Vindolanda tablet refers to a ventralem not a focale. In addition a mosaic from Apamea in Syria shows a hunter wearing a red tunic with both a white scarf and a waistband.

BTW, any ideas as to why cotton didn't find its way into Europe before the Arab invasion.

Not true. Cotton goods were imported into the empire from India via Egypt and was also grown itself both in Egypt and other parts of North Africa. As such it would then be traded throughout the empire but naturally would get more expensive the further it went. Cotton clothing remains from the Roman period have even been found in Britain. The fact that cotton does not survive very well also adds to it's rarity.

Before being accused of being selective myself, all the comments above are supported by much more evidence which can be found in the three volumes of Roman Military Clothing and with revisions and updates in four new forthcoming books. So you can see there is far too much material to be covered by a single post here. I hope the evidence presented there is not seen as biased in anyway and the reader will by and large be left to make up their own minds. I would not like to think that I was

entrenched and inflexible

.

Finally, Jim can you post me a better quality picture of your tunic?

Graham.

[Graham Sumner]

As a Postscript

There is a recent mention on another thread by someone who says they are fed up of hearing that the Romans used red tunics simply because they did not want to see their own blood.

I could not agree more. This is a modern misinterpretation of the quote from Isidore of Seville who wrote that the Romans like the Spartans before them wore red tunics so as their enemies would not see their blood!

From my own point of view what is interesting about this quote is that there is very little argument about the colour of Spartan tunics with far less evidence than there is for Roman ones.

Graham.